We know that the modal for "negative obligation" is '''zenke''', as in '''nga zenke kivä''' ''you must not go'' ([[Canon#Zenke]]). It is pretty obviously derived from '''zene ke'''. But I was curious how to cope with the 2nd position infixes, since I was uncomfortable with the idea that the ke element would get an infix. So I asked. Here's what Pawl said about it,

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:Quote from: Karyu Pawl

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:Zenke. Interesting question. I went back and forth on this one. But since the word is clearly from original *zeneke, there would probably also have been a form *zenängeke with a second-position infix. This one too would evolve to lose the e by syncope:

Note, however, that with the ceremonial '''‹uy›''' and suppositional '''‹ats›''' the '''e''' does not go away, since the resulting syllable would be illegal, so '''zolenuyeke''' and '''zolenatseke'''.

Revision as of 21:21, 5 September 2011

The Na'vi language canon is the complete collection of information about the Na'vi language provided by authoritative sources, namely Paul Frommer and the creators of Avatar (James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox).

The canon comprises two things:

words and phrases spoken or written in Na'vi

descriptions of the linguistic elements of Na'vi such as orthography, morphology, syntax, and grammar

The Na'vi words and phrases from canonical sources are presented or linked to on the Corpus page (where copyright allows). Documentation, explanation, and analysis of Na'vi linguistics are presented on other Learn Na'vi wiki pages (Phonology, Morphology, Grammar, etc.). This page serves to document the canonical sources themselves. The majority of the examples on this page come from email correspondances with Frommer.

This page includes information dated April 2011 - December 2011.
To access past information please see:

Kawtseng, tsapo and prefixes

I asked Dr Frommer about his blessing for kawtseng ‘nowhere’ (with the expected double negation) and tsapo ‘that one’ (with the expected case endings). His reply:

Quote from: K. Pawl, 13 May

Kawtseng and tsapo are fine. Go ahead and announce them, and I’ll try to include them in some of my example sentences as well.

and regarding stress:

Quote from: K. Pawl, 18 May

It’s KAW.tseng and TSA.po.

Also, Inspirata’s question about how prefixes behave that ‘collide’ with the same vowel got me intrigued and I asked about that.

Quote from: K. Pawl, 18 May

As for your other question, the general rule is that when two identical vowels come together, they coalesce into one. So in your examples, the words become fìlva, tsatan, and fnekxan respectively. Of course if the noun begins with a glottal stop, this doesn’t happen. For example, ‘this spiral’ is fì’ìheyu.

Affective Obligation (zenke)

We know that the modal for "negative obligation" is zenke, as in nga zenke kiväyou must not go (Canon#Zenke). It is pretty obviously derived from zene ke. But I was curious how to cope with the 2nd position infixes, since I was uncomfortable with the idea that the ke element would get an infix. So I asked. Here's what Pawl said about it,

Quote from: Karyu Pawl

Zenke. Interesting question. I went back and forth on this one. But since the word is clearly from original *zeneke, there would probably also have been a form *zenängeke with a second-position infix. This one too would evolve to lose the e by syncope:

That is: *zenängeke > zenängke. [Stress remains in the first syllable.]